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Tx Trib Schools Explorer

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Racial Tension Mounts At South Bay High School

Racial Tension Mounts At South Bay High School

Posted: 10:24 pm PDT May 5, 2010Updated: 10:44 pm PDT May 6, 2010

MORGAN HILL, Calif. -- Tensions mounted at a Bay Area high schoolThursday, a day after five students whipped up emotions by wearingt-shirts depicting red, white and blue American flags on Cinco de Mayo.

A group of 50-60 Latino students walked out of classes at Morgan Hill'sLive Oak High early Thursday, marching to city hall and rallying to showtheir support for a school official.

That unidentified assistant principal had ordered the students who woret-shirts with American flags on Cinco de Mayo to either go home or turnthe shirts inside out.

Among the demonstrators was sophomore Justina Piedra.

.We could have ignored it, but the fact that they did it to us last year-- see that is disrespect toward us,. she said of the students. .And theywant to do it again and plan it out, they plan it out. They think it.sfunny. It hurts us. We are just as equal as they are..

Fellow student Lizbeth Ruiz also said she felt disrespected.

.There is no right for them to be putting us down,. she said of thet-shirt wearers. .All that proves that America isn.t what it should be..

Meanwhile, Superintendent Wesley Smith released a statement saying thedistrict does not prohibit or discourage students from wearing patrioticclothing.

"While campus safety is our primary concern and administrators madedecisions yesterday in an attempt to ensure campus safety, students shouldnot, and will not, be disciplined for wearing patriotic clothing," Smithsaid.

The case has prompted an outcry as news of the incident has spread acrossthe country. A high school student in Yorktown, Va., created a Facebookpage titled "I support the 5 students from Morgan Hill high school."

Kathleen Sullivan, a Morgan Hill Unified School District board trustee,said Live Oak also experienced problems on Cinco de Mayo last year.

She said some students had complained to the principal and vice principalthat they had felt intimidated by students waving American flags.

In response to those complaints, school authorities had asked students notto provoke other students by wearing or waving flags this year, Sullivansaid.

"The district's position is that that is not in our policy," Sullivansaid. "But the underlying reason for it was student safety."

She did not know if the five students had returned to school, but saidthey have not been suspended. Smith added that the district isinvestigating the incident.

Kirk Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethicsat Santa Clara University, said the action taken by the school waswarranted if their objective was to maintain the security and safety ofthe other students.

"Was there a danger of a fight between the students celebrating Cinco deMayo and the students wearing the American T-shirts? If there was athreat, then their action was ethical," Hanson said.

"The decisions regarding student dress are always difficult for schoolauthorities and it is possible that any particular dress, including theAmerican flag, could under circumstances be threatening," Hanson said.

"But when the students' rights are at stake, the school authoritiesclearly should try to find some way to protect those rights and at thesame time defuse the situation."